1. Field of Invention
The application generally relates to point of sale purchases, and more particularly, to transactions utilizing a payment instrument to access funds in at least one flexible spending account.
2. Background Art
Section 125 of the United States Internal Revenue Code offers tax savings to employees for medical, dependent care and childcare expenses. Likewise, Section 132 of the United States Internal Revenue Code offers employees tax savings for work-related parking and transportation expenses. For example, employees may be entitled to tax benefits if the employees withhold a portion of their payroll to pay for medical, dependent care, childcare, work-related parking expenses and/or work-related transportation expenses. In other words, the employees' payroll is taxed on the amount left after the withheld portion is subtracted from the payroll amount and the withheld portion is placed into a flexible spending account (FSA).
How consumers pay for healthcare expenditures also is changing. Presently, less than 20% of consumer healthcare payments is through use of “plastic,” which includes debit cards, charge cards, and credit cards. This percentage is expected to grow by over 10% in five years to approximately 30% by 2010.
Another fundamental change that is expected to occur in the healthcare industry is the increase in use of consumer-directed healthcare plans (“CDHPs”), which offer tax advantages to employers who offer such plans and, for some CDHPs, to employees as well. The shift towards CDHPs, while providing tax and other benefits to employers and/or employees, also entails significant administrative costs borne by the employers. These costs include, for example, the costs associated with maintaining individual accounts for each participating employee. Additionally, providers of healthcare goods/services often encounter significant delays in payment from CDHPs, due to the amount of time necessary to substantiate receipts and to determine the respective payment responsibilities of the insurers and the employees.
There is a need for systems and methods for automatically accessing funds held in an FSA at the point of sale, and specifically, by utilizing a single payment instrument (e.g., a debit card, credit card, charge card, FSA card, RFID, etc.) at the point of sale. In addition, there is a need to access multiple FSAs for different categories of qualifying items utilizing a single payment instrument. Furthermore, there is a need for accessing one or more FSAs and/or one or more non-FSAs utilizing a single payment instrument.